112 WALL-CREEPER. 



The Wall-Creeper breeds sparingly in suitable localities in the 

 Vosges and the Jura ; while stragglers have occurred on the Rhine 

 as far north as Coblentz, and in the valleys of the Moselle and the 

 Meuse. Along the Loire it is not very uncommon, and seven or 

 eight examples have been obtained as far west as Nantes ; most of 

 them on the walls of the old chateau which overlooks the busy 

 wharves. In the mountains of Savoy and Switzerland it is generally 

 distributed, being perhaps more abundant in the Grisons than in 

 any other district ; it is also resident in the Basses-Alpes, Provence, 

 the mountainous regions of the mainland of Italy, Sicily, Sardinia 

 and Elba ; while Professor Giglioli has observed it climbing about 

 walls in Florence. Throughout the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian 

 chain, and in the loftier ranges of Portugal and Spain down to the 

 Sierra Nevada, it is comparatively abundant. East of the Alps we 

 find it in Tyrol, Styria, the Carpathians, Greece, Asia Minor, the 

 Caucasus, and the mountains of Asia as far as China ; while Riippell 

 has recorded it from Egypt and Abyssinia. 



The nest, composed of moss, straw, and grass, lined with hair, 

 wool and feathers, is placed in some crevice of the rocks ; and the 

 eggs, 3-5, are white, very finely spotted with reddish-brown : average 

 measurements '78 by •56 in. Two broods are sometimes produced 

 in the season ; the task of incubation devolving upon the female. 

 The call-note is a shrill pli-pli-pli-pli-pli, like that of the Lesser 

 Spotted Woodpecker. The food consists of ants' eggs, spiders, and 

 insects and their larv?e generally ; in search of which the bird may 

 be seen climbing up the face of a cliff" by successive bounds, and 

 moving its wings like a butterfly, which indeed, from the red and 

 white markings displayed, it much resembles. Its course is gene- 

 rally zig-zag, and the tail is not used as a means of progression. 



Adult male in breeding-plumage : slate-grey above, darker on the 

 head, and darkest on the rump ; wing-coverts mostly crimson ; quills 

 blackish-brown, tipped with dull white, the 2nd to 5th each with a 

 basal and a sub-apical white spot on the inner web, from the 6th 

 inwards only a basal spot ; outer webs of nearly all the primaries 

 rich crimson, forming a bar ; tail black, tipped with grey and white ; 

 throat and breast black ; remaining under parts dark grey ; bill, legs 

 and feet black. The female has rather less black on the throat. In 

 winter that part becomes greyish-white in both sexes ; the head is 

 browner and the upper parts are paler. The young bird at first ex- 

 hibits less crimson and has a shorter bill, but the black throat is 

 acquired the first spring. 



